Amare Wants Your Love and Admiration

Since the Shaq-for-Marion trade went down, Amare Stoudemire has been playing out of his mind. And it is mostly thanks to his Herculean efforts on a nightly basis that Phoenix was able to tread water until The Big Cactus could be integrated into the system.

With the Suns and Shaq having seemingly found their stride, Amare would now like some recognition.

“I don’t know what it is,” Stoudemire said. “I hear everybody’s name mentioned as far as the top players in the league. My name is never up there. It definitely hurts because I put in the work and the time and the effort to be an elite player. But my thing is just to keep improving. Whether they notice it or not, my teammates notice it, my coaching staff notices it, and we’re winning ballgames.”

At 24 ppg and 9rpg, Stoudemire is having the best season since his breakout 2004-2005 campaign. He’s an All-Star for as long as he wants to be one, and is arguably one of the top 3 power forwards in a stupefyingly stacked League. What more does he want?

It really is a wonder how Phoenix was able to be so successful over the last few years with egos as big as STAT and Shawn Marion’s.